Show 0 ve be cause ause D IV t 7 6 Z Z confederate cavalry M N V ima ac re j forrest and compa n IV na forrest zefore the war i gen cen braxton picha ricer from in forret forrest and hr his critter company campany courtesy minton minion balch company by ELMO SCOTT WATSON aaa aa 0 MOST americans the name ot of gen nathan bedford forrest confederate cavalry leader means S the synonym for the author ot of a famous epigram on how to win battles his method was to git that fust with the montest men but what they do not realize is that forrest was more than just the maker of EL a historic phrase a picturesque character personally and an unusually successful cavalry leader it if the estimation of a recent biographer Is correct forrest takes lit his place among the greatest of all amer I 1 acin military leaders a master strategist as well as a master tactician and the man who tad had it not been for the jealousy of a superior officer night might earll easily have saved the lost cause the biographer Is andrew nelson lytle and his viewpoint Is presented in the book bedford forrest and ills his critter company published pu bUshed recently by minton SI inton balch and company mr lytle has ample justification for his estimate of forrest gen robert E lee had bad a great cavalry leader with his forces the dash lag in jeb stuart but at appomattox when somebody oae body asked loe lee who was the greatest soldier in his command he answered instantly A man I 1 have never seen sir ills ilia name is forrest A similar tribute was paid to forrest by jefferson davis twelve years later tile the former president of the confederacy and governor porter of tennessee were riding in the fuli fanneral eral procession which was carrying old bedford to ids his grave turning to davis porter said history has accorded to general for test kat the first place as a cavalry leader in the war tor between the states and has named him as one of the halt half dozen great soldiers of the country Ou to which davis graduate of west point and a professional soldier before he was tailed called to head a new american republic replied the trouble was that the generals commanding in the southwest never appreciated forrest until it was wag too late their judgment was that he be was a bold and enterprising partisan raider ralda r and nd rider i was misled by them and I 1 never knew how to measure him until I 1 read his to rc ports of his campaign across the tennessee liver er in 1804 this induced a study of his miter reports and after that I 1 was prepared to adopt what you are pleased to name fis as the judgment of history but bat to realize to the full the greatness of borrest onest one should turn to the words not of his friends but of his enemies gen william T ec adseh sherman who campaigned against III in in the western campaigns camball agns gns never made the mistake otake of underestimating his ability and shernan sherman once exclaimed 1 I urn am going to got get forrest if it costs lives lives and breaks the treasury I 1 there e will never be peace in tennessee until forrest lg Is dead I 1 but he never did get him na the wizard of the saddle jig as the adoring called him went through four years of leadership in war without a detent titi a record in history A Is the ta tennes 69 6 As for critter company compan Y it sec aull na name for For forresta rests cavalry early in the war ar while union troops we were to occupying their it tennessee ee forrest became overnight could be they ideal of what a soldier w cond I 1 gains but they not understand strat strategic egic could l kind of fighting 1 understand his particular sowbelly belly it as sow bow avils bea as is plain and as felt lt that they and corn bread the women i now had a 4 defender they began to threaten tyran illegal hanion officer with B forrest will fa get they you 0 for thile and 1 ni 11 tell or F orrest forrest on you all lear med ried that he be was a bogey man they believed in the lilla him by the U e people people ahe lieme adoration given they as followed him given by the men who re f tel ju s I 1 as jack man erred old to him as tile he abey sons foot cavalry did to that leader same klao in the called him old bedford jack lease referred t 0 old o that jacksons men fattier 14 as a return he looked after them fo arest cokl made after his childrel child veL of lives in a waste a battle especially if the lives were those of his hl boys he was vms the ideal cavalryman in his judgment of hors horseflesh ellesh and of how to take care car of the mounts in his command nathan bedford forrest was born in bedford county tennessee in 1821 little la Is known of his life as a boy but what is known Is mainly a record of conflict of fights with wild animals with bullies of the neighborhood and other evi evil dences devices to prove that nathan bedford was a born fishier fighter in his early manhood he started to texas to help fight for texan independence but arrived there only to find that there was no need for his services penniless young forrest split enough rails at fifty cents a hundred to pay his way back to tennessee then he became a horse trader and later moving to memphis became a broker in real estate and finally a slave trader in all of which occupations he prospered ile he next became an alderman in memphis after he had distinguished himself by dating daring as a private citizen to save the lives of two murderers when a mob threatened to storm the jail and when no one else dared to face the would be lyn chers ebers forrest planted himself in front of the jail holding a six shooter and calling out to the mob in a clear firm voice if you come by ones or by tens or by hundreds ill kill any man who tries to get in this jail the result of this firm statement was that the mob of three thousand quickly melted away they knew that forrest meant exactly what he said after serving one year as an alderman forrest resigned in 1859 and became a cotton planter he was thus ariga engaged ged when the civil war broke out and in june 1801 instead of using his influence to get a commission he enlist enlisted ed as a private in whites tennessee mounted rifles miles but his friends did what he would not do for himself they decided that the ranks were no place for forrest so they prevailed upon the confederate authorities to give him a commission as lieutenant colonel and the authority to raise a battalion of mounted rangers going up into kentucky hot both it because he be could secure excellent horses there and because every man which he brought out of that state which was ground for both neutral but was a recruiting governments would weaken the armies turned returned to memphis some just that much he re eight weeks later having raised eight companies strong then began his big amazing par excellence as a 91 cavalryman as a career whose exploits tar far out natural military genius soldiers and as a trained shown those of in many any thorn in the side 0 of f one union general after another nothing about military tactics forrest knew regard he was an ideal cared less in that and spirited men under leader tor for the independent mounts were and guard drills his command managed to but their officers them to obnoxious the formality from them e even en without get acet results dL manner in the prescribed prescribe of gi giving ving commands tangle into fours 1 men expression aa 91 I 1 such git would all shock ock an army 1 around by turn torn but w when hen such speechless trained drillmaster givren given to For forresto Forre rests sfa men they commands were wanted and they obeyed knew what was contempt for west point had a fine forrest according to rule wh who 0 fought officers trained occasion after a battle battla on one of the thumb to the southern been di disastrous sa which bad been fought accor according ding to a had forces and which forre forrest st had been Opp posed gen plan to which called a council 0 of f war lee stephen D lee sir air yes 3 it if lie he had h ad tiny any ideas asked r orrest forrest leader ive always 9 got ot ideas said tile the cavalry thing general lee if I 1 and ril ill tell aou ou one west point tactics as you about knew as much would whip hell bell out of me every the 1 T yankees day 11 that forrest 1119 might lit have sis As for the the thesis from defeat it Is based saved the 1 confederacy davs the government lytle the h fact ct that as would be upon realized that the war which first battlefields would ornately western on decided t and the premise that vantage stage have ve a decided dec ded advill had bad been rf recognized SOO oon if it forresta For ferrets rests a genius govern government me nt if lie confederate bonfe con fe the had nut not enough by sufficient force ce and lad had been given a superior he might arted ed by a jealous the been tawit ar and turned have e be the west scale in favor of the confederacy but president davis and his big cabinet their attention concentrated cent rated upon the eastern theater of war and upon holding richmond which was strategically relatively unimportant failed to see until it was too late that if they lost the west they lost the war and forrest even though he won victory after victory was wag forced to see his efforts repeatedly peat edly nullified by the inefficient gen brax ton bragg to whose weakness ess davis seems to have been strangely blind even though they were soon enough recognized by other confederate generals and by the people of the south the story of forresta For rests campaigns would take a volume for the telling he served brilliantly at fort donelson and led his own forces safely through tile the encircling union lines to nashville ne ile could have done as much for buckners buckness Buck ners entire army had bad that general listened to him but buckner listen and the result was what lytle calls a tragedy of errors the loss not only of the fort but of buckners buckness Buck ners entire army forrest captured a large union force at mur blur free and made it possible for bragg to take the initiative away from buell in the kentucky campaign ile served gallantly at shiloh Shi loli at hog mountain and at chickamauga and in innumerable other actions where he was unhampered by the orders of his superiors he proved repeatedly that here was one confederate leader who knew how to win battles but always there was the hand of braxton bragg to minimize or nullify his big success finally one day lie he stamped into braggs tent and declared you may as well not issue any more orders to me for I 1 will not obey them and I 1 will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you try to inflict upon me you have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly I 1 dare you to do it and I 1 say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be fit at the peril of your life and bragg did not take the dare the closing days of the war found forrest a lieutenant general a recognition which had come too late and placed in charge of all the cavalry in the west the last organized confederate forces in that section but by this time his efforts were futile so BO far as the outcome of the war was concerned lee surrendered to grant and johnston to sherman and there was no further need for forrest to lead his critter company on those swift dashes which had made him the nightmare of more than one commander in blue nis his men begged him to lead them to mexico to avoid surrendering but he knew the game was up an and d surrendered to general canby after the war forrest went to mississippi to become a planter again taking as bis big partner a federal officer cerl 1 later he sold his plantation and moved to memphis ile he was a delegate to the first postwar post war democratic convention and when he went to new york he attracted so much attention that lie he could not move about the streets without drawing a crowd such was the fame of the wizard of the saddle to in the north when the dark days of the reconstruction st period came upon the south and the ku klux klan was organized to save it from the scalawag carpetbagger regime forrest was offered the command of the new movement and accepted it it had previously been offered to robert E lee but although he refused lie he approved of the idea saying that hla his approval must be invisible so the ku klux klan became the invisible empire and when the na name me tor for a commander was brought up some one suggested gen nathan bedford forrest the wizard of the saddle so he became the grand wizard of the invisible empire by 1870 the work of the ku klux klan had saved the south aud and forrest disbanded it there were only a few more years of life left for him lie he died in bl memphis emphis october 29 18 1877 7 and was waa burled buried in elmwood cemetery later his body was removed to a park set aside to his memory in Bl memphis emphis and an equestrian statue raised over it so bedford forrest batill rides in the south in material form in this statue and in spiritual form in the hearts of the people of tennessee who still tell their tales of old bedford the wizard of the saddle Q a by western newspaper union |